New York Explosion Empties Port Authority and Subway Stations

An explosion Monday morning caused the authorities to evacuate one of the busiest transit hubs in New York City as the workweek was set to begin.

The Police Department said in a tweet that it was responding to reports of an explosion of unknown origin at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, where two subway stations, Times Square and Port Authority, are connected by a tunnel. The Port Authority bus station was also evacuated.

One person was in custody, the Police Department said. A senior city official who declined to be identified because of the continuing investigation said that the suspect had been wearing an explosive device strapped to his person and that the police had stripped him naked to remove it.

The suspect was alone and the device was reported to have gone off prematurely in the passageway between the two subway stations. The explosion was recorded on surveillance video, the city official said. The man who was in custody was in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital.

The police said that no other injuries had been reported and advised people to avoid the area.

Soon after the explosion was reported, the commutes of New Yorkers miles away from the blast became chaotic. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported that 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, N, Q, R, W and 7 trains were skipping 42nd Street.

Commuters underground near 40th Street and 8th Avenue began to flee after a loud, muffled sound was heard in the Port Authority subway station. Police officers, firefighters and Port Authority counterterrorism officials tried to clear commuters from the bus station and the west side of 8th Avenue as sirens blared.

Andre Rodriguez, 62, a caseworker at one of the city’s shelters, said he heard an explosion shortly before 7:30.
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“I was going through the turnstile,” he said. “It sounded like an explosion, and everybody started running.”

Alicja Wlodkowski, 51, said that she had been in a restaurant inside the Port Authority when she suddenly saw a crowd of people running.

“A woman fell, and nobody even stopped to help her because it was so crazy,” she said. Then it all slowed down. I was standing and watching and scared.”